System for determining and displaying legal-practice trends and identifying corporate legal needs

ABSTRACT

The present inventor devised systems, methods, interfaces, and software that can facilitate generation and presentation of legal trend data based on legal documents, such as caselaw documents or court docket documents.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claim priority to U.S. Provisional Applications60/643,445 and 60/643,446, which were both filed on Jan. 12, 2005 andwhich are both incorporated herein by reference.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND PERMISSION

A portion of this patent document contains material subject to copyrightprotection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimilereproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure,as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files orrecords, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever. The followingnotice applies to this document: Copyright© 2004, Thomson Findlaw.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments of the present invention concern informationretrieval systems, particularly those that are tailored for particularindustries, such as the legal industry.

BACKGROUND

The American legal industry is a highly fragmented industrycharacterized by thousands of law firms working and competing to performlegal work for business clients across the country. In recent years, thecompetition for this work has stiffened as large corporate clients havesought cost savings by reducing the numbers of law firms they employ.Moreover, an apparent trend of law-firm consolidation and increasednumbers of partner-level defections from one firm to another havefurther heightened the general level of competition among firms.

One problem the current inventor has recognized in the legal industry isthat most if not all law firms lack sufficient business data to fullycomprehend the competitive nature of the markets they serve.Accordingly, the inventor has identified a need to provide marketintelligence data that law firm executives and managers can use to makebetter business decisions.

SUMMARY

To address this and/or other needs, the present inventor devisedsystems, methods, interfaces, and software that can facilitatedevelopment and/or presentation of market intelligence data to law firmexecutives and managers. One exemplary system aggregates informationregarding legal events for corporate entities, identifies the lawyersand law firms that provided services during these legal events,classifies the legal events and corporate entities according torespective legal and industry classification systems. The system canthen accept queries from users regarding a legal specialties, law firm,corporations, and industry and present specific trend data bases on thenumbers of legal events over specific time periods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary information-retrieval systemcorresponding to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a facsimile of an exemplary graphical user interface 200 whichcorresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a facsimile of an exemplary graphical user interface 300 whichcorresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a facsimile of an exemplary graphical user interface 400 whichcorresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a facsimile of an exemplary graphical user interface 500 whichcorresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a facsimile of an exemplary graphical user interface 600 whichalso corresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is flow chart of an exemplary method corresponding to one or moreembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an exemplary method corresponding to one ormore embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 9, 10, and 11 are facsimiles of exemplary graphical userinterfaces corresponding to one or more embodiments of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT(S)

This description, which incorporates the Figures and the claims,describes one or more specific embodiments of an invention. Theseembodiments, offered not to limit but only to exemplify and teach theinvention, are shown and described in sufficient detail to enable thoseskilled in the art to implement or practice the invention. Thus, whereappropriate to avoid obscuring the invention, the description may omitcertain information known to those of skill in the art.

Exemplary Information-Retrieval System

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary online information-retrieval system 100, whichincorporates teachings of the present invention. System 100 includes oneor more databases 110, one or more servers 120, and one or more accessdevices 130.

Databases 110 include a set of primary databases 112 and a set of seconddatabases 114. Primary databases 112, in the exemplary embodiment,include a case-law database 1121 and a statutes databases 1122, whichrespectively include judicial opinions and statutes from one or morelocal, state, federal, and/or international jurisdictions. Secondarydatabases 114, provide attorney, judge, law firm, product, and corporateprofiles as well as briefs, pleadings. More specifically, one set ofdatabases includes one or more of the following types of content:federal court dockets, mergers and acquisition information, juryverdicts and settlements. Another set includes one or more of thefollowing content types: patents, trademarks, copyrights, Security andExchange Commission (SEC) filings; federal administrative decisions, AOCfederal court statistics, NCSC state court statistics, press releases,news reports, website content, state dockets, state attorney generalopinions, state administrative decisions, corporate filing andregistration; federal and state court briefs, federal and statepleadings and motions, law reviews, bar journals, and continuing legaleducation (CLE) materials.

Each corporate profiles include one or more industry classificationcodes or indicators as well as associations to lawyer and law firm namesderived from matching their names to those in documents containingreferences to both the corporate entity and the lawyer or law firm. Insome embodiments, the case-law documents are logically associated via adata structure with documents or profiles in databases 114.Additionally, attorney or law firm profiles are associated with datastructures that provide experiential ratings for the attorneys invarious legal and/or jurisdictional categories of law.

The tallies may be made by counting the number of times a givenattorney's name or a given law firm's name appears in court documentsthat pertain to a given legal specialty, such as intellectual propertylaw, employment law, or tax. Association of documents with legalspecialties or topics is based on a legal categorization system such asthe KeySearch™ System, which is featured in the Westlaw™ Online ResearchSystem. Other embodiments also tally journal articles identifying agiven attorney as an author. In some cases, the tally of cases orarticles or other documents can be deemphasized based on the age of thecases or articles, so that more recent experience can be weighted moreheavily than past experience in determining an experiential rating. (Insome embodiments, alternative or supplemental experiential ratings canbe determined in real-time based on user specified criteria taken aloneor in conjunction with previously generated experiential data andstatistics derived from caselaw and other types of documents in thedatabases.) Other embodiments may include non-legal databases thatinclude financial, scientific, or health-care information.

Databases 110, which take the exemplary form of one or more electronic,magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, include or are otherwiseassociated with respective indices (not shown). Each of the indicesincludes terms and phrases in association with corresponding documentaddresses, identifiers, and other conventional information. Databases110 are coupled or couplable via a wireless or wireline communicationsnetwork, such as a local-, wide-, private-, or virtual-private network,to server 120.

Server 120, which is generally representative of one or more servers forserving data in the form of webpages or other markup language forms withassociated applets, ActiveX controls, remote-invocation objects, orother related software and data structures to service clients of various“thicknesses.” More particularly, server 120 includes a processor module121, a memory module 122, a subscriber database 123, a data-extractionmodule 124, a search module 125, a report engine module 126, and auser-interface module 127.

Processor module 121 includes one or more local or distributedprocessors, controllers, or virtual machines. In the exemplaryembodiment, processor module 121 assumes any convenient or desirableform.

Memory module 122, which takes the exemplary form of one or moreelectronic, magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, stores subscriberdatabase 123, data-extraction module 124, search module 125, reportengine module 126, and user-interface module 127.

Subscriber database 123 includes subscriber-related data forcontrolling, administering, and managing pay-as-you-go orsubscription-based access of databases 110. In the exemplary embodiment,subscriber database 123 includes one or more report generation datastructures, of which data structure 1231 is representative. Datastructure 1231 includes a customer or user identifier portion 1231A,which is logically associated with one or more report generation orpresentation preferences, such as preferences 1231B, 1231C, and 1231D.Preference 1231B includes a default value governing whether one of moreof the functions described herein is enabled or disabled. Preference1231C includes a default value governing presentation of interfacesrelated to the one or more functions. Preference 1231D includes adefault value governing other aspects of the one or more functions. (Inthe absence of a temporary user override, for example, an overrideduring a particular query or session, the default value for trendreporting govern.) In some embodiments, data structure 1231 storesparameters or filters for defining one or more trend reports.

Data-extraction module 124 includes one or more sets ofmachine-executable instructions for extracting attorney identificationdata, court and court date information, attorney plaintiff-defendantstatus information, client identification data, client industryidentification data, client plaintiff-defendant status information,attorney-to-client identification data, and law-firm identification datafrom documents in databases 110.

In some embodiments, data-extraction module 124 produces a secondaryindex or other form of data structures which logically associates orrelates documents and/or specific data contained in those documents tospecific lawyers and/or lawfirms. In some embodiments, data-extractionmodule 124 includes separates sets of parsers and extractors tailoredfor various types of documents in database 110. Additionally, someembodiments employ simple text matching of lawyer and law firms names inattorney and law firm profiles or in corporate profiles to documentsthat are classified according to a legal subject matter hierarchy, suchas the KeySearch™ system, whereas others employ complex Bayesianmatching or other intelligent techniques for inferring such dataconnections.

The KeySearch™ system provides the following top level of legalcategories: Administrative Law, Agriculture, Alternative DisputeResolution (ADR), Antitrust and Trade Regulation, Art, Entertainment,and Sports Law, Bankruptcy, Business Organizations, Civil Procedure,Civil Remedies, Civil Rights, Commercial Law and Contracts,Communications, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, Construction Law,Criminal Justice, Education, Elections and Politics, Employment Law,Energy and Utilities, Environmental Law, Family Law, Finance andBanking, Government, Health Immigration Law, Indigenous Peoples,Insurance, Intellectual Property, International Law, Juvenile Justice,Legal Services, Maritime Law, Military Law, Products Liability,Professional Malpractice, Property—Personal, Property—Real, Science,Computers, and Technology, Securities Law, Taxation—Federal,Taxation—State and Local, Torts/Personal Injury, Transportation,Veterans, Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning.

In some embodiments, data extraction module 124 includes web-basedapplications to semantically connect or link legal practitioners'customers (current or prospective) to detailed information related tothe attorney's experience, relevancy (to the legal issue at hand), andcontext (of the customer). In addition, some embodiments enableattorneys and their customers to automatically generate reporting datato determine attorneys' and/or firms' success records, law-firm trendsand history in various legal specialties, and customer (client) trendsand histories with attorneys and firms who have represented them. Also,this legal-practitioner data can form “visual relationships” ofattorneys with cases, judges, other attorneys, clients, publications,etc. The exemplary technology provides a comprehensive solution totracking information on legal practitioners in the contexts of legalrelevance and contextual relationships, reports, and visualrelationships. While some embodiments of the present invention have thiscapability (for example by suggesting legal subject matter experts orrelated published materials in response to caselaw or legal literaturequeries) others, potentially more significant, provide data based ondocumented relationships that have been experienced between attorneys,firms, judges, and clients to produce legitimate related references.

Search module 125 includes one or more search engines for receiving andprocessing user queries against one or more of databases 110. In theexemplary embodiment, one or more search engines associated with searchmodule 124 enable users to search for attorneys or law firms withdemonstrated experience in a given legal issue and/or given court/judge.Attorneys and law firms are sorted by relevance, with the mostexperienced in a given legal issue and/or court displayed first based onexperiential ranking information. This module (in cooperation withothers) also enables users to find legal representation throughcontextual relationships on related web pages. For example, if a user isviewing a page with content related to intellectual property, the systemrecommends attorneys who are local (and potentially national) experts inintellectual property. Some embodiments are sensitive to whether thelegal context is a local, state, or federal issue, limiting or evenexpanding recommendations accordingly. For example, patent law isgenerally a federal issue, so that attorney or firm locality may oftenbe of lesser significance. Results can be expanded and orderedaccordingly.

Report engine module 126 includes machine readable and/or executableinstructions for generating and/or rendering interacting graphs based ondata in databases 110 and trend report requests from a user. In theexemplary embodiment, module 126 includes instructions in accord withthe description in Appendices 1 and 2 and elsewhere in this document.

User-interface module 127 includes machine readable and/or executableinstruction sets for wholly or partly defining web-based userinterfaces, such as search interface 1271 and results interface 1272,over a wireless or wireline communications network on one or moreaccesses devices, such as access device 130.

Access device 130 is generally representative of one or more accessdevices. In the exemplary embodiment, access device 130 takes the formof a personal computer, workstation, personal digital assistant, mobiletelephone, or any other device capable of providing an effective userinterface with a server or database. Specifically, access device 130includes a processor module 131, one or more processors (or processingcircuits) 131, a memory 132, a display 133, a keyboard 134, and agraphical pointer or selector 135.

Processor module 131 includes one or more processors, processingcircuits, or controllers. In the exemplary embodiment, processor module131 takes any convenient or desirable form. Coupled to processor module131 is memory 132.

Memory 132 stores code (machine-readable or executable instructions) foran operating system 136, a browser 137, and a graphical user interface(GUI) 138. In the exemplary embodiment, operating system 136 takes theform of a version of the Microsoft® Windows® operating system, andbrowser 137 takes the form of a version of Microsoft® InternetExplorer®. (However, some embodiments use other operating systems andbrowsers.) Operating system 136 and browser 137 not only receive inputsfrom keyboard 134 and selector 135, but also support rendering of GUI138 on display 133. Upon rendering, GUI 138 presents data in associationwith one or more interactive control features (or user-interfaceelements). (The exemplary embodiment defines one or more portions ofinterface 138 using applets or other programmatic objects or structuresfrom server 120 to implement the interfaces shown above or elsewhere inthis description).

More specifically, GUI 138 includes a query region 1381 and a resultsregion 1382. Query region 1381 includes an input feature 1381A, a submitfeature 1381B, and a report control feature 1381C, which provides accessto one or more other controls that enable a user to define and submit atrend report request. Input feature provides one or more input regions,such as a lawyer-law-firm selection feature, a geographic (orjurisdictional) selection feature, and a legal subject matter feature.In the exemplary embodiment, each of these control features takes theform of a hyperlink or other browser-compatible command input, andprovides access to and control of query region 1381 and search-resultsregion 1382. User selection of the control features in region 1382results in retrieval and display of at least a portion of thecorresponding document within a region of interface 138 (not shown inthis figure.) Region 1382 includes regions 1382A, 1382B, and 1382C,which display respective primary, secondary, and report results.Although FIG. 1 shows region 1381 and 1382 as being simultaneouslydisplayed, some embodiments present them at separate times.

FIGS. 2-6 respectively show other exemplary interfaces 200, 300, 400,500, and 600 that have one or more portions that may be used in place ofone or more portions of GUI 138. In FIG. 2, interface 200 displays anattorney query for experts in a legal field of prior art who have triedcases under Margaret Kravchuk in Maine's First Circuit U.S. DistrictCourt. Interface 300 displays the resulting list of attorneys from thequery according to their relevant litigation experience and authorship.In FIG. 4, interface 400 displays a query on intellectual-property lawto be searched by law firm. In FIG. 5, interface 500 displays a list ofrelated attorney profiles within the context of a featured article. Theattorney links listed on the right portion of the screen identifyattorneys with legal expertise in the field that is featured in thearticle. The links, in some embodiments, are listed in rank order ofexperience, with the most experienced lawyer listed first.

In FIG. 6, interface 600 displays a visual relationship network for agiven attorney, which in some embodiments may be a referral target orprospective lateral hire. The visual relationship network allows legalpractitioners to facilitate referrals and to build an online “community”that provides associations with a variety of networks. Previousrelationship-network applications only contain aggregate attorneyattributes that form a limited universe of attorney information. Someembodiments use this figure as a template for a networking interface, inwhich a user selectively activates each cluster or family of nodes toinitiate display of screens that show details, such as contact andprofile information, including professional experience and third-partyratings, of people identified within the cluster. The judge networkincludes attorney appearances associated with judges, courts, legalmatters, etc. The local peer network displays other attorneys who haveappeared in front of the same judge, in the same courts, or on the samelegal matters. Additional sub-networks provide information related totheir titles.

FIGS. 9, 10, and 11, as well as Appendices 1 and 2 describe various kindof reports that may be generated and displayed as part of GUI 138 aswell as output to a printing device. Some embodiments also enable exportof the report to a spread sheet application.

Thus, various embodiments provide users the capability to search forexpertise on specific legal matters, in specific courts, before specificjudges. In addition, this feature allows firms to make hiring decisionsby providing a view of an attorney's litigation record that is drawnfrom court decisions in a proprietary online legal research service.Profiles also display a full view of a legal practitioner's litigationexperience to assist in these hiring decisions. This history can also beuseful in assessing potential conflicts of interest for given attorneys.

Exemplary Methods of Operating an Information-Retrieval System

FIG. 7 shows a flow chart 700 of an exemplary method of operating aninformation retrieval system, such as system 100 in FIG. 1. Flow chart700 includes blocks 710-740, which are arranged and described serially.However, other embodiments execute two or more blocks in parallel usingmultiple processors or processor-like devices or a single processororganized as two or more virtual machines or sub processors. Otherembodiments also alter the process sequence or provide differentfunctional partitions or blocks to achieve analogous results. Moreover,still other embodiments implement the blocks as two or moreinterconnected hardware modules with related control and data signalscommunicated between and through the modules. Thus, the exemplaryprocess flow applies to software, hardware, and firmwareimplementations.

At block 710, the exemplary method begins with provision of amultilingual document collection—that is a collection comprising two ormore documents written in two or more languages. In the exemplaryembodiment, the document collection takes the form of one or moredatabases, such as database 110 in FIG. 1. Execution continues at block720.

Block 720 entails defining or extracting relationships between documentsin the databases. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails usingdata-extraction module 124 in system 100 to extract entity names fromthe documents and using various techniques to identify or inferrelationships between the extracted names. After the one or more indicesare defined, processing continues at block 730.

Block 730 entails receiving a query (or trend report request) from auser. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails a user directing abrowser in a client access device, such as device 130 in FIG. 1, to aninternet-protocol (IP) address for an online information-retrievalsystem, such as system 100, and then logging onto the system usingappropriate credentials. Successful login results in a web-based searchinterface, such as interface 138 in FIG. 1 (or one or more portionsthereof) being output from server 120, stored in memory 132, anddisplayed by client access device 130. The user then defines the queryby interacting with the interface, specifically entering data into oneor more query fields or selecting from various drop down menus, and thentransmits the query to a server, such as server 120 for processing.Execution then advances to block 740 (as shown in FIG. 7).

Block 740 entails presenting a graphical user interface incorporatingthe data based on the request or query. In the exemplary embodiment,this entails displaying a listing of the identified set of items, suchas attorneys or documents and attorneys on interface 138, 200, 300, 400,or 500, or a trend report as shown in FIGS. 9-10 or Appendices 1 or 2.In some embodiments, selection of a link associated with a listedattorney causes retrieval of a profile for the attorney, with theprofile including a link to cause display of an interface, such asinterface 600, which shows various networks that the respective attorneybelongs to. In some variations of these embodiments, an additionalcharge is levied against the subscriber upon accessing interface 600 andthe value-added information it provides.

FIG. 8 shows a high-level flow diagram 800 that may be employed at block720 or within data extraction module 124. The diagram includes workflowand supporting components. Data sources (in the first column) fromvarious proprietary repositories contain a variety of content types. Inthis diagram, the content types include articles, law reviews, mergersand acquisitions (M&A), and political contributions. The data-extractioncolumn displays the programs that extract data from the contentaccording to the functions/products the data will support. For example,the law-trend and client-trend report applications require data to beextracted by identifying the company, attorney-to-client relationship,and law-firm. In addition, auto-mining and “job change event” extractionmay be used. Auto-mining is essentially the process by which an attorneyis added to the content repository if he or she is not identified by theextraction program. “Job change event” extraction monitors pressreleases for updates to an attorney's position within his or herexisting firm or another firm. Once the data is extracted by the miningprograms according to function, it is placed in a “relationshipauthority,” or relational data structure, such as an index or added asmeta data to attorney and corporate profiles. An inference engine(RMS++, not shown) then processes data from the relationship algorithminto final products. This engine is built with a series of algorithms(rules) that infer the relationships of attorneys, employmentinformation, corporate legal data, etc. For example, if Attorney A hasappeared before Judge A during the same case as Attorney B, theinference rules within the engine would determine that Attorneys A and Bwere involved in the same case.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An information retrieval system comprising:a database of multilingual legal documents, including a plurality ofcourt docket documents and case law documents written in two or morelanguages, wherein the court docket and case law documents are logicallyassociated with means for identifying the court docket and case lawdocuments by lawyers, law firms, corporate entities, legal-subjectclassifications, and industry classifications; a data extraction modulecoupled to the database of multilingual legal documents configured andoperative to define relationships amongst the multilingual documents inthe database of legal documents, the data extraction module beingfurther configured to provide at least first and second indexes whereineach first and second index defines different relationships amongst themultilingual documents in the database of legal documents prior to auser requested trend report request; and a server configured tocommunicate with the database and with a client access device, theserver further configured to receive a trend report request with respectto at least one of a lawyer and a law firm from the client access deviceand to generate a trend report by semantically associating a lawyer orlaw firm with legal-subject classifications and industry classificationsbased on the request, with the trend report request including means foridentifying a time period, at least one of a lawyer, a law firm, and atleast one of a legal-subject classification and an industryclassification, the server including a search module coupled to thedatabase of legal documents configured and operative to enabling textualsearching of the legal documents to identify lawyers and law firmsmatching a user defined parameter based upon the defined relationshipsof the multilingual documents in the database of legal documents whereinat least one of the lawyers or law firms are sorted by relevance whenmore than one lawyer or law firm is identified, the server furtherconfigured to define a graphical user interface to present informationrelated to a plurality of social networks to which the identifiedlawyers belong based upon the defined relationships of the multilingualdocuments, wherein the plurality of social networks comprise peerlitigator network, professional associations network, professionalseminar network, law school network, local peer network, legal authornetwork, peer client network and judge network.
 2. The system of claim1: wherein the time period defines a number of years; wherein the serveris configured to determine a number of court docket documents and anumber of case law documents that match the one of the legal-subjectclassification and the industry classification during each year of thetime period criteria; and wherein the graphical user interface isfurther defined to present an interactive graph with respect to at leastone of a lawyer, a law firm, the plurality of social networks and acorporate entity based on the number of matching case law documents orthe number of matching court docket documents for each of the years. 3.The system of claim 2, further comprising a subscriber databaseassociated with the server, wherein the graphical user interface definedby the server includes a control feature selectable to cause storage ofthe time period, and the one of the legal subject classification and theindustry classification in association with a user identifier forsubsequent reuse.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofcourt docket documents consist of: one or more federal court dockets;and one or more state court dockets.
 5. The system of claim 1, whereinthe user defined parameter includes law firms or attorneys withexperience on a defined legal issue.
 6. The system of claim 1, whereinthe user defined parameter includes law firms or attorneys havingexperience with a particular judge or court.
 7. The system of claim 1,wherein the search module is configured to enable a user to find legalrepresentation through contextual relationships on related web pages. 8.A method of operating an information retrieval system, the methodcomprising: providing means for searching a database of multilinguallegal documents having a plurality of court docket documents and caselaw documents written in two or more languages by lawyer, law firm,judge, court, corporate entity, legal-subject classification, andindustry classification; providing means for defining at least first andsecond indexes wherein each first and second index defines differentrelationships amongst the multilingual documents in the database oflegal documents prior to a user requested trend report request;providing means for enabling textual searching of the plurality of courtdocket documents and case law documents to identify lawyers and lawfirms matching a user defined parameter based upon the definedrelationships of the multilingual documents in the database of legaldocuments wherein at least one of the lawyers or law firms are sorted byrelevance when more than one lawyer or law firm is identified; receivinga trend report request including means for identifying a time period,means for identifying at least one of a lawyer, a law firm, and acorporate entity, and means for identifying at least one of alegal-subject classification, an industry classification, a particularjudge and a particular courtroom; identifying one or more of the courtdocket documents and case law documents based on the means foridentifying the time period, the means for identifying at least one of alawyer, a law firm, and a corporate entity, and the means foridentifying at least one of the legal-subject classification, anindustry classification, a particular judge and a particular courtroom;generating a trend report by semantically associating a lawyer or lawfirm with legal-subject classifications and industry classificationsbased on the trend report request; and defining a graphical userinterface to present information related to a plurality of socialnetworks to which the lawyer belong based upon the defined relationshipsof the multilingual documents, wherein the plurality of social networkscomprise peer litigator network, professional associations network,professional seminar network, law school network, local peer network,legal author network, peer client network and judge network.
 9. Themethod of claim 8: wherein the time period defines a number of years;and wherein the method further comprises: determining a number of courtdocket documents and a number of case law documents that match the oneof the legal-subject classification, the industry classification, theparticular judge and the particular courtroom during each year of thetime period; and further defining the graphical user interface topresent an interactive graph for at least one of a lawyer, a law firm,the plurality of social networks and a corporate entity based on thenumber of matching case law documents or the number of matching courtdocket documents or each of the years.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein further defining the graphical user interface includes defininga control feature selectable to cause storage of the time period, andthe one of the legal-subject classification and the industryclassification in association with a user identifier for subsequentreuse.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the user defined parameterincludes law firms or attorneys with experience on a defined legalissue.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the user defined parameterincludes law firms or attorneys having experience with a particularjudge or court.
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein the means forenabling textual searching is configured to enable a user to find legalrepresentation through contextual relationships on related web pages.14. A method of operating an information retrieval system, the methodcomprising: providing a database of multilingual legal documents,including a plurality of court docket documents and case law documentswritten in two or more languages; providing a data extraction modulecoupled to the database of multilingual legal documents configured andoperative to define relationships amongst the multilingual documents inthe database of legal documents, the data extraction module beingfurther configured to provide at least first and second indexes whereineach first and second index defines different relationships amongst themultilingual documents in the database of legal documents prior to auser requested trend report request; receiving, at a server, a trendreport request including means for identifying a time period, means foridentifying at least one of a lawyer, a law firm, and a corporate entityand means for identifying at least one of a legal-subject classificationand an industry classification; identifying legal documents in thedatabase based on the means for identifying the time period, the meansfor identifying at least one of a lawyer, a law firm, and a corporateentity, and the means for identifying at least one of the legal-subjectclassification and an industry classification; wherein the server isconfigured to enable textual searching of the legal documents toidentify lawyers and law firms matching a user defined parameter basedupon the defined relationships of the multilingual documents in thedatabase of legal documents, wherein at least one of the lawyers or lawfirms are sorted by relevance when more than one lawyer or law firm isidentified, the server further configured to define a graphical userinterface to present information related to a plurality of socialnetworks to which the identified lawyers belong based upon the definedrelationships of the multilingual documents, wherein the plurality ofsocial networks comprise peer litigator network, professionalassociations network, professional seminar network, law school network,local peer network, legal author network, peer client network and judgenetwork; and generating a trend report by semantically associating alawyer or law firm with legal-subject classifications and industryclassifications based on the trend report request.
 15. The method ofclaim 14, wherein identifying legal documents based on the means foridentifying the time period and the means for identifying at least oneof the legal subject classification and an industry classificationincludes searching the database of legal documents based on means foridentifying the court docket and case law documents by lawyer, law firm,and corporate entity.
 16. The method of claim 14: wherein the timeperiod defines a number of years; and wherein the method furthercomprises: determining a number of court docket documents and a numberof case law documents that match the one of the legal-subjectclassification and the industry classification during each year of thetime period; and further defining the graphical user interface topresent an interactive graph with respect to at least one of a lawyer, alaw firm, the plurality of social networks and a corporate entity basedon the number of matching case law documents or the number of matchingcourt docket documents for each of the years.
 17. The method of claim16, wherein further defining the graphical user interface includesdefining a control feature selectable to cause storage of the timeperiod, and the one of the legal-subject classification and the industryclassification in association with a user identifier for subsequentreuse.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the user defined parameterincludes law firms or attorneys with experience on a defined legalissue.
 19. The method of claim 14, wherein the user defined parameterincludes law firms or attorneys having experience with a particularjudge or court.
 20. The method of claim 14, wherein the search module isconfigured to enable a user to find legal representation throughcontextual relationships on related web pages.